Welcome to "Dust, Tears & Dice", a blog dedicated to the hobby of miniature wargaming.
If you fancy gaming periods off the beaten track then this is the place for you.
I am a regular member of The Wyvern Wargamers, formerly The Evesham Wargames Club drawing gamers from Worcester, Redditch, Kidderminster, Cheltenham and Stratford.
All players welcome.

Saturday, August 27, 2016

Smugglers and Wreckers.

The blog and hobby generally has really fallen behind in recent weeks, what with a couple of holidays and trying to play catch up at work to make up for the "rest".

Devon was rather wet.

What did I expect for August in the UK?

However looking for things to pass the time I wandered into a couple book shops who had a number of small booklets on the Smugglers and Wreckers of North Devon. Perfect as I had been looking at the Black Scorpion range for several weeks thinking about how I could find a use for them.

During the
17th and 18th centuries smuggling or Free Trading was commonplace in the West Country
and considered to be a very profitable way of life!

Smugglers were known to
have used
Lee, Ilfracombe, Heddon’s Mouth, Watermouth Cove and Morte. Some of the
smuggling operations were clearly considerable; in 1785 a 96 gallon cask
of rum was found at Watermouth Cove and in 1801 224 gallons of
gin and 164 gallons of brandy were found on the
foreshore near Ilfracombe.

Wrecking was another popular activity, as goods were washed ashore from a
wrecked ship were regarded as common property. The wreckers of Mortehoe
were notorious and feared by sailors it was said a sailor would rather drown than come ashore at near the men of Morte.
Any ship in trouble brought locals to the shore and in no time the ship would be destroyed
and its cargo carried away. It was illegal to claim salvage from a
wrecked ship if anyone was found alive on it. Therefore the wreckers
would dispose of any survivors!
One of Mortehoe's most notorious wreckers was Elizabeth Berry,
who it is thought used her pitchfork to drown sailors." (she was arrested for plundering the William and Jane in 1850
and given 21 days hard labour).

It seems that everyone was involved; in 1783
all the Ilfracombe pilot boats were suspected of smuggling and one, the Cornwall, was seized and cut
up into three parts. An Ilfracombe Collector from
1804-1824, Thomas Rudd, was father in law to a known smuggler, Cooke, who was never
caught. In 1825 the richest man in Combe Martin, John Dovell, was prosecuted
for handling smuggled goods.

The most infamous smuggler in north Devon was Thomas Benson, who in 1747 became
MP for Barnstaple. The following year he was granted a lease on Lundy Island and
entered into contract with the Government to carry convicts abroad.

However, he
landed them on Lundy instead to run his smuggling operation. He became over
confident and was fined for smuggling and stripped of his office. He didn’t pay
and his lands in Bideford were seized. To recover his losses he persuaded the
Captain of the Nightingale to fire it for the insurance, but the plan was
discovered and he fled to Portugal.

Now they sound like some cracking scenario's to me....
Just the tonic to kick start the hobby again....

Peter nearer 30-32mm I will post up a comparison in the coming weeks, I ahve ordered the Cutlass rules and a sample pack, then I guess it's a trade off between the volume in 28mm or these great looking figures.CheersStu

StuartA comparison photo would be great. I am doing SYW Brits V's French in Europe and could use some seamen and such. The bigger scale wild be gone for personality figures, but less so for rank an filers.Peter

I had the same idea Peter, the extra 2-3mm would make them stand out rather than alternative basing etc, etc. I have some Brigade French Sailors for Napoleon in Egypt, which will serve as a comparison.I will dig them out and post over the next few days.CheersStu

Good to hear your thinking about all that you have mentioned as a future Project...very nice Black Scorpion figures - I'm assuming that they are 28mm. Interesting Skirmish potential there Stuart. Regards. KEV.